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Toepoke

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3 minutes ago, Texas Pete said:

They also won their second round match and quarter final. They are a very good team but they are not as good as some people on here would have you believe. 

They needed a late goal to beat the Faroes away just as we did and laboured to beat them at home. We beat the Faroes more comfortably than they did at home. 

They are definitely beatable but we will need to be at our very best, take our chances and will probably need a bit of luck as well. 

I think if we're at our best that'll be enough, no luck required, although I certainly wouldn't turn my nose up to a bit of luck 😁

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17 minutes ago, Texas Pete said:

I’m not sure what you are basing that on. Why not 2 out of 10 or 3? I’m pretty sure we beat Denmark the last time we played them at Hampden 5 years ago. We can do it again. I’m not going to put any sort of odds on it because the bookies have already done that for us. 

Denmark are good but they are clearly not as good as Belgium, France, Italy or probably even England or Spain. They have less strength in depth and they will be missing some key players tomorrow. 

Will we beat them? Probably not but we have better than a 10% chance in my opinion. 

We will have a full Hampden behind us tomorrow and with a good performance and a bit of luck we might just spring a surprise. We could also get pumped. I’m looking forward to finding out. 

I really doubt we would beat this danish team 3 out of 10 times. Maybe 2 but 3 would be very unlikely. 

I would say Denmark are on a par with most of the top nations right now. They might not have as many top players as other top nations but they play very well as a team and that's one of the reasons they are a top tier nation right now. 

I am not writing us off completely as we have beaten top nations before but our odds are still slim. 

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5 hours ago, mccaughey85 said:

I really doubt we would beat this danish team 3 out of 10 times. Maybe 2 but 3 would be very unlikely. 

I would say Denmark are on a par with most of the top nations right now. They might not have as many top players as other top nations but they play very well as a team and that's one of the reasons they are a top tier nation right now. 

I am not writing us off completely as we have beaten top nations before but our odds are still slim. 

A top nation who have around half a dozen players out remember. To think that does not weaken them is naive.

Also they are not going to be as fully committed or as motivated to win as us that is a given. They have qualified already so it is only natural that players go into self-preservation mode. By that I mean whereas there could be a 50-50 challenge that could bring a sore challenge and injury they are far less likely to want to do it. Also if we get into the lead what are their motivation to get back aheaf? How deep are they willing to physically push themselves to haul themselves back into the game. I'd say less than if there was something on the game for them.

Sure it is not going to be easy but I do know that if we go onto that pitch harbouring mortal terrors of our opponents that some of our fans have - we lose.

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Its a real fine balancing decision Steve Clarke has to make due to the mockery of a decision to carry yellows over to the playoff 

Do you go all out for the win to get us seeded with the best players 

Or do you protect them against picking up a yellow and being suspended for the playoffs 

Somebody elsewhere posted some stats on the ref and apparently quite card happy so not a good omen 

Our best 11 at home i think we can get a draw, a win im not so sure about and im unsure if a draw would get us seeded 

However cant wait for the game just hope we dont have any players suspended for the playoffs and we get a good result and performance to keep the momentum going into the playoffs 

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25 minutes ago, borojock said:

Its a real fine balancing decision Steve Clarke has to make due to the mockery of a decision to carry yellows over to the playoff 

Do you go all out for the win to get us seeded with the best players 

Or do you protect them against picking up a yellow and being suspended for the playoffs 

Somebody elsewhere posted some stats on the ref and apparently quite card happy so not a good omen 

Our best 11 at home i think we can get a draw, a win im not so sure about and im unsure if a draw would get us seeded 

However cant wait for the game just hope we dont have any players suspended for the playoffs and we get a good result and performance to keep the momentum going into the playoffs 

Easy decision for me. Play your best team. A positive result tonight could be the difference between playing away to Portugal or home to North Macedonia. 

Got to remember, these players have picked up only one yellow in the previous 9 games so they're hardly Vinnie Jones types where a booking tonight is an inevitability. 

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2 minutes ago, Dodger said:

Easy decision for me. Play your best team. A positive result tonight could be the difference between playing away to Portugal or home to North Macedonia. 

Got to remember, these players have picked up only one yellow in the previous 9 games so they're hardly Vinnie Jones types where a booking tonight is an inevitability. 

Spot on.

And Denmark are hardly a side to stir up a bloodbath match either. Look at the game in Copenhagen - no bookings. Obviously, if things go superbly well and we are a couple of goals up with 15 minutes to play we can take off those in danger of suspension to protect them.

And where do we stop? Do we leave players out of the semi-final in case they miss the final?

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2 minutes ago, Bobby Russell's Lovechild said:

Which is ridiculous considering some teams have played two games less, therefore less chance to build up yellow cards compared to 6 team groups

Oh of course it is ridiculous but this is UEFA calling the shots. it is akin to keeping yellow cards throughout a World Cup or European Championship tournament. Crazy.

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16 minutes ago, Caledonian Craig said:

Oh of course it is ridiculous but this is UEFA calling the shots. it is akin to keeping yellow cards throughout a World Cup or European Championship tournament. Crazy.

One of the FA’s is fighting this rule. Wales I think? I certainly read something on this subject over the weekend. 

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1 minute ago, McTeeko said:

One of the FA’s is fighting this rule. Wales I think? I certainly read something on this subject over the weekend. 

There were also reports in Scottish papers that Clarke was against it too and wanted it changed. However, again this is UEFA. I cannot see them budging on it. Especially, as it aids countries with bigger in depth squads and they tend to be the bigger nations.

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1 hour ago, Caledonian Craig said:

I would say if we are unseeded it is not the end of the world. 

That's true and I won't be too upset if we don't do the business tonight. But we've really just got ourselves back into the same position as if we'd beaten Slovakia or Israel in the Nations League last year (ie. an unseeded play-off place). It'd be nice to take it that extra step further.

 

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7 minutes ago, Toepoke said:

That's true and I won't be too upset if we don't do the business tonight. But we've really just got ourselves back into the same position as if we'd beaten Slovakia or Israel in the Nations League last year (ie. an unseeded play-off place). It'd be nice to take it that extra step further.

 

Yes but with a difference. We've got to the play-offs stringing together five wins on the bounce amongst them a win away to a team seeded above us (Austria). Plus a lot of people on here were quick to point out we qualified for the Euros through the back door as we did not qualify through the conventional way. That is not the case this time.

We have the carrot of a seeding hanging there. Lets grab it. If we don't lets not just give up hope.

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3 hours ago, Caledonian Craig said:

There were also reports in Scottish papers that Clarke was against it too and wanted it changed. However, again this is UEFA. I cannot see them budging on it. Especially, as it aids countries with bigger in depth squads and they tend to be the bigger nations.

I wonder if Ronaldo Is on a yellow and if they would change the rules if he or someone of similar standing got another to miss out on playoff's..🤔

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Well done Serbia and a great finish from Mitrovic. They were excellent losers to us (online anyway, found loads of goodwill from them to us after the Playoff) so well done to them, and Portugal play the dullest football to man, fingers crossed Macedonia, us, or whoever draws them can knock them out in Lisbon.

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Can’t see Turkey winning by 4 against Montenegro but I’m a bit worried about Wales vs Belgium. 

Belgium are missing quite a few key players and Wales are a decent side at home.

Just hope Martinez starts KdB and his best 11 and that they are up for it.

Really excited for the game at Hampden tonight though. As long as we don’t sit off them and show too much respect like we did against Croatia in the Euros then I think we have a chance - we need to be on it from kick off and try to unsettle them. 

 

 

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1 hour ago, weekevie04 said:

Well done Serbia and a great finish from Mitrovic. They were excellent losers to us (online anyway, found loads of goodwill from them to us after the Playoff) so well done to them, and Portugal play the dullest football to man, fingers crossed Macedonia, us, or whoever draws them can knock them out in Lisbon.

On paper they've an excellent side though.  It'd be just our luck to draw them.

They may have been complacent last night but I reckon the result will have stung them.  When good teams know they're in last chance saloon territory that's when they're really dangerous - I'm sure we all remember the Netherlands in 2003.  🙈

21 minutes ago, JandC said:

Can’t see Turkey winning by 4 against Montenegro but I’m a bit worried about Wales vs Belgium. 

Belgium are missing quite a few key players and Wales are a decent side at home.

Just hope Martinez starts KdB and his best 11 and that they are up for it.

Really excited for the game at Hampden tonight though. As long as we don’t sit off them and show too much respect like we did against Croatia in the Euros then I think we have a chance - we need to be on it from kick off and try to unsettle them. 

 

 

Wales tend to do quite well against Belgium, for some reason.  It's just one of those unexplainable things in football: there are certain teams you tend to do well against and others you struggle against, regardless of form.

I'd be surprised if Turkey won so comfortably again Montenegro too; I think they only drew with them when they played them at home.

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